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Swift success: Taylor Swift was the top earning music artist in the US last year

Swift success: Taylor Swift was the top earning music artist in the US last year

Taylor Swift has topped Billboard's list of the highest paid music artists, raking in more than $23m last year in the US according to their estimates. It turns out that dropping 2 new albums and a re-release of an older album in one year is a good way to please your fanbase.

Billboard estimates that roughly half of Swift's music income came from streaming payouts — with another $10m from sales and $3.2m from publishing rights. Swift didn't make a dime from touring thanks to COVID restrictions, but that wasn't the case for everyone.

Queen of touring

Celine Dion may have only made an estimated $300k from streaming last year, but she more than made up for it with an enormous haul from touring. Dion squeezed in 23 shows before the corona curtain came down, equating to almost $50m in gross ticket sales — of which she took home $17m according to Billboard estimates. The Eagles similarly managed to squeeze in some shows, netting the classic group more than $11m for their efforts.

Check out the full list of music money makers at Billboard.

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In less than three weeks, Disney’s “Zootopia 2” becomes the second billion-dollar film of 2025

The global film industry officially has its second billion-dollar film of the year, as Disney’s “Zootopia 2” surged past the $1 billion box office mark in just 17 days. The other billion-dollar film this year, the live-action “Lilo & Stitch,” was also made by Disney.

“Zootopia” was the fastest to reach 10 figures of any animated film. The animated hit, which had the highest-grossing global debut of the year over Thanksgiving weekend, has benefited from massive numbers in China.

Disney also logged two billion-dollar films last year with “Inside Out 2” and “Moana 2.” (The latter also came out over the Thanksgiving holiday.) The only other film to cross the mark in 2024 was “Deadpool and Wolverine,” which featured Disney’s IP.

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Tom Jones

Charlie Kirk’s Wikipedia page was the top English-language article on the site in 2025

The day after his assassination in September, Charlie Kirk’s Wikipedia page was viewed over 170 times per second, or almost 15 million times, according to figures from the Wikimedia Foundation.

Like with most other years, the top entries of the year reflected the fact that millions flock to the platform to learn more about political figures, films, and fatalities.

Though there’s been much talk about the impact of AI-generated search summaries and chatbots on Wikipedia — not least from the platform itself — it’s still clearly a major go-to resource for anyone looking to learn a little about a lot online, especially if this week’s year-end figures are anything to go by.

Top Wikipedia articles 2025 chart
Sherwood News

Though there’s been much talk about the impact of AI-generated search summaries and chatbots on Wikipedia — not least from the platform itself — it’s still clearly a major go-to resource for anyone looking to learn a little about a lot online, especially if this week’s year-end figures are anything to go by.

Top Wikipedia articles 2025 chart
Sherwood News

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